The adventures of the trio
Harry Potter quietly stepped off his four poster bed, and nudged Ron, who at once opened his eyes quickly enough to suggest a restless excitement. This was their first year at Hogwarts, and Harry had rather fancied exploring the great castle without the bustle of students and prowling teachers in the corridors. So they had decided to persuade Hermione to accompany them at midnight, and though it had been a fairly rigorous exercise in debating, Hermione had eventually succumbed to Harry's rational pleas and Ron's constant pleading. In fact, Hermione had noticeably eased down about rule breaking after their previous encounter with the troll, and she was a much likeable person for it.
Ron bent down and picked up the invisibility cloak from the top of Harry's trunk, along with Scabbers the rat, who was unceremoniously placed inside Ron's front shirt pocket, his beady eyes looking outwards. Harry was feeling excited as well, for he felt that he was truly deepening his bond with Hogwarts by attempting to make interesting discoveries and delve into the secrets inside it's labyrinthine corridors . Furthermore, he felt that he was establishing a firmer relationship with his friends. He and Ron had been hesitant and slightly uncertain about their friendship with Hermione after the troll incident, but she really was an admirable person and she really did get along with them quite easily. Harry found that it was delightful to have true friends, and in fact, Hogwarts was like his first real family; with Ron and Hermione his first ever true friends.
"Hermione isn't here yet," whispered Harry to Ron as they waited outside the girls dormitories. "She said she would be here at five past eleven."
One of the main reasons that Hermione had been reluctant to go exploring the school was not, in fact, the blatant rule breaking they would be committing by leaving their common room after hours, but rather that she might be tired and inattentive in the following day's classes. Eventually, Hermione had resigned by saying that 'if she came along, there at least would be someone responsible enough to ensure no rules were broken'. Harry had refrained from stating that they were in fact breaking rules by prowling the corridors. But getting her to come along had definitely been a good idea; it was far better than having two boys with minimally underdeveloped magical skills wandering around a castle full of creaking suits of armour and horrors such as Mrs. Norris. Besides, they were a trio now. They did everything adventurous together.
"I'm going up," said Ron impatiently, as they waited for Hermione to come out of the dormitories. Harry saw Ron beginning to walk up the twelve or so stairs up to the girl's dormitories. He reached about halfway, when there was a small squelching noise and the stairs suddenly joined together to become a smooth slide, sending Ron sliding back down. Ron looked at them in mild indignation as he gathered himself up, and muttered at the unfairness of the safeguard.
But after a period of angry muttering, Ron calmly looked up and said, "Harry, do you want to see who can get the highest?" Harry grinned at the prospect of such a game. He took a short run up, and then leaped from the second step to the fourth, and then the sixth. He was midway to the seventh when the stairway rose to meet him, turning into a slide and sending him unwillingly down again. They kept at this for a few minutes, taking turns. Harry got the closest to the top; up to the eighth step.
"I've got an idea" he said to Ron. "Use the levitating charm Flitwick taught us, and then we'll see if the stairway can stop us." Ron laughed; this was a lot of fun.
Harry positioned himself at the foot of the stairs, and Ron confidently said "Wingardiam Leviosa." A brief lightness took hold of Harry, and he was hoisted slowly 2 feet into the air. It wasn't at all scary; in fact, Harry felt that if he had wanted to come back down, a mere shaking of his body would be enough to loosen the spell.
"Steady now," whispered Ron, as he directed his wand in an upwards motion. Harry silently laughed as he floated above the stairs and towards the dormitory door, making sure not to make contact with the stairs, as that would activate the safety charm. He had moved up ten stairs, and this, Harry realised as his heart quickened, was further than possibly any boy had ever gone up the girl's dormitories. Harry was just reaching the small oak door at the top of the staircase, and motioned to Ron to relinquish the spell as he reached out for the wooden door handle, when it suddenly opened and out walked Hermione.
"Harry!" she shrieked in a half whisper. Hermione grabbed him around the waist and dragged him down from the air, and his foot touched the topmost stair, which suddenly turned into a slide, forcefully sending Harry and Hermione to the bottom again.
"Really, now," said Hermione to Ron, who was laughing as he gave Harry a high five. "The founder's were right in putting that charm, given how mistrustful boys can be," she said, but there was a lightness in her voice and she couldn't but grin slightly. "You are getting better at casting charms, you know," she said to Ron, whose ears turned slightly red.
"It's certainly a progression from 'Sunshine mellow' and 'turn this stupid, fat rat yellow'" said Harry, chortling. Scabbers blinked in indignation from Ron's front pocket.
"So, where should we go?" Harry asked as they clambered out of the portrait hole. The Fat lady opened in an automatic manner, and they saw that she was dozing, oblivious to her surroundings.
"Well, I've always wanted to feel the atmosphere of the library at night time," said Hermione.
"The library" said Ron, slightly shocked.
"Why not?" asked Hermione defensively, looking slightly abashed.
"Come and get under the cloak" said Harry to the two, and Hermione and Ron moved towards the Harry's hand, which was floating in midair; waving at them.
"Merlin, Harry, must you wave a floating hand in the dead of night," cursed Ron, who had gotten a slight fright. The three made sure the cloak was covering them, and then started walking forward.
"Let's just see where the stairs take us," said Harry, and without a better idea, the three stood strangely in the middle of a staircase, waiting for it to move. Harry looked down over the edge of the banister of the staircase, for they were quite high up near the Gryffindor common room, and he could see the doors of the Great Hall way below. There was a peculiar stillness about the castle, and he could see many, many portraits that hung across the walls. The staircase suddenly swung around to another staircase, and the three stepped on. They walked up a corridor, turned left, and boarded another few staircases, until they promptly lost themselves within the castle. Hermione steered them towards a large, wall to wall window, and they peered out. There was darkness everywhere, but Ron fancied he saw some twinkling lights far below. Harry had no idea at all of how high up they were, or even in which part of the castle.
"We're very high up," said Hermione. "In fact, I want to try something. Just help me open the window." Ron and Harry twisted a small catch, and slid open the five foot window. A cool draught whispered inside the castle.
"Can we take off the cloak, please? It's not like we need it now, and besides, if we meet someone, we can just quickly put it on," said Hermione. Harry understood what she meant, it was quite annoying having to shuffle along so many stairs and corridors, all bunched up together under the invisibility cloak. Hermione twirled her wand in the air and muttered "Calico". A soft cotton ball the size of a baseball appeared out of midair. "This'll give us an idea of how high up we are," she said in a pleased voice. Harry thought she just wanted to try out the spell, but he was rather enjoying himself.
"Valontia," whispered Hermione at the ball, and it became encased in some metallic dust. "That's just a small amount of fireworks powder," Hermione explained. "This will make some noise when it hits the ground. Ron, do you want the honours?" she asked.
"No thanks. Although, I never thought you would be one to throw destructive objects out of castle windows," he commented, grinning.
"Well, it is rather fun, isn't it?" she said and Harry and Ron laughed. She launched the ball from the window and it was soon lost in the darkness. Eight seconds later there came a very loud BANG, and the three became suddenly wary of the large noise they had caused. Hastily shutting the window, they nervously and quickly stood next to Harry, who swished the cloak over all of them, as Hermione apologised ('Sorry, too much powder'). They hastily made their forward again, and invisible though they were, Harry distinctly saw a few suits of armour creaking as their metallic heads turned faintly in the direction of their hurried and invisible footsteps.
They were just approaching a large tapestry when Ron suddenly stumbled, and the hem of the cloak was entangled in his foot. The cloak was stuck under Ron's foot, and suddenly, all three of them were visible. Ron swore, and looking backwards, saw Mrs Norris the cat looking up at them. Her eyes gleamed in the darkness, and she suddenly whisked away.
"Just our luck," groaned Harry. "She had to be here at this exact time, didn't she?"
"Probably gone to find Filch" said Ron. "Oh, let me jinx her. I've wanted to try the curse of the bogies ever since Quirrel mentioned it to us in class".
But Harry silently gestured the others to come over to a tapestry of a large forest, which was swishing as if caught in a mild breeze. Harry and the others walked right through it, and after a single step forward into the darkness, they stepped out into a new corridor; Mrs Norris far away from them.
"Blimey, this must be one of those secret passages around the school that Fred and George told me about once. I thought they were just joking, but, wow!" exclaimed Ron. Harry too was quite amazed at what had just happened, but not too surprised. After all, an enchanting place such as Hogwarts was bound to have many, many secrets within its chambers.
"That was a really close call," whispered Hermione. "I wonder where we are now. We just came out of an inner transporter passage, I've read all about them in Hogwarts, a History. There are a small multitude of secret passages that can take you within different places of the castle, though they aren't documented. Those students who find them usually keep it a secret, and so you have to find them by yourself to use them," she said knowledgably. Harry felt sure that he too would keep the passages a secret, and was glad that they weren't documented, there was, after all, much more fun in finding the passages at unexpected times, as they had done moments ago.
The three silently walked into the new corridor in which they had emerged, their feet tapping lightly onto the wooden floor. The smell of fresh air and nature was wafting around the corridor. Suddenly, Ron pushed them into the nearest door, hastily whispering 'It's the Fat Friar'.
Harry looked back from inside the room and saw Hufflepuff's ghost go floating past outside the door and vanish through a painting of the Sahara desert.
"I know where we are" said Hermione. "But, wait, is that... it is, isn't it?"
With a slightly bemused expression, Ron said "If, in some distant year, in a faraway galaxy, you want to tell us something, please do feel free to."
"Oh, sorry," said Hermione, as Harry laughed jovially. "We're in the advanced potions classroom. This classroom is only used for those who progress to NEWT level, and the lessons are really advanced. They learn all about Hypothetically-Quantified Vector mixtures and Caperscky-Motion stirring. I was reading the study design for Year 7, it's really quite fun" she finished, with an awed tone in her voice.
Harry caught Ron's eye and looked away quickly. He wandered over to the benches, where a dozen small vials were wafting small streams of blue gas into the air at odd moments.
"This is what I was so awed about earlier," said Hermione, walking up to Harry. "This is a Differentially Limited anti-gravity potion. I heard a senior Ravenclaw talking about these, and it looks like they've been left to brew overnight."
"Hermione," said Ron in an amazed tone. "How on earth do you know these things? And what exactly do these potions do?"
Harry thought he had a vague idea what they were.
"Do they make you fly?" he asked Hermione.
"In essence, yes, they do, hence their peculiar galaxy-like smell," Hermione answered. Harry realised that the nature-like smell he had initially perceived actually reminded him of the stars and other such planetary feelings.
"Well, let's get out of here," said Ron to the others, folding the invisibility cloak under his arms. "I have enough of Snape as it is, without wandering into his advanced potion classrooms. Listen, I really want to go into one of the other towers. I've only ever been in Gryffindor tower, and there are all these other turrets that look magnificent."
Harry, Ron and Hermione agreed, and were just about to walk out of the room when Peeves suddenly floated in from the tapestry of the desert, saw the three students, and at once zoomed forward.
"Ickle students, wandering around," he said as he floated upside down in the corridor.
"We're not wandering," said Harry quickly. "We were, erm, just checking our potions."
This was the wrong thing to say. Peeves, though more troublesome and boisterous than even Dudley, was certainly not as stupid. He stuck his head through the wall into the potions room, and reappeared again, a wicked grin on his face.
"You're much too tiny to be in advanced potions. Tiny, pea-brained firsties, aren't you? You were trying to ruin Snape's potions, weren't you".
"No Peeves, we most certainly WERE NOT" said Hermione sternly. This adult and mature tone, though surprising Harry and Ron, had no effect whatsoever on Peeves.
"FIRST YEARS RUINING YOUR POTIONS, SNAPE!" he shouted gleefully, and then flew towards the nearby dungeons, creating a further raucous by upending a suit of armour.
"Oh no, what do we do now, what do we do?" asked Hermione in a frightened tone.
"Quick, back in here," said Harry, and led them into the potions room. "Ron, keep the cloak safe. Hermione, did you say we could fly if we drink this potion?"
"Oh no, Harry, no, we can't possibly do that." Ron seemed to have caught on to Harry's idea though, for he said to Hermione, "We have to. It's the only way out. I can even hear someone coming."
He was right. There was definitely the sound of a heavy wooden door opening, and it wouldn't be long before Peeves had brought someone with him to the room.
"Well, alright then," said Hermione reluctantly. "But you mustn't drink these types of potions. That's exceedingly dangerous. These potions are also known as Perfume potions, because you're only meant to dab it or use it very sparingly. I think we should sprinkle just a little bit onto our hands. That should lift us up."
Ron suddenly turned pale. "Hermione, we can't escape. There's no courtyard or open air nearby, and Snape will be in the corridor outside in no time. There's nowhere we can fly, even if we do dab this potion and I don't fancy floating around the ceiling of this room while Snape walks around below us."
"Oh, Ron, there's a window in this room that we can use to escape," said Hermione, as if this was a completely normal suggestion, despite the fact that they were several stories high. Walking up to it, Hermione said 'Alohamora', and the catch flew open. She slid the window open, just as heavy footsteps came into the corridor outside.
"Over here, your greasiness," came the voice of Peeves, and they heard Snape snarl.
"Hermione, quick," said Ron, looking very scared. Harry grabbed a vial, and quickly but carefully dropped a few drops into first Hermione's, then Ron's, and finally his hands. Bravely, Hermione said "follow me," and she jumped out the window. There was a two storey fall below. The door opened, and hastily Ron and Harry too jumped out. Harry plummeted straight down, until he saw Hermione gradually floating upwards with her hands held up at the sky.
"Ron, put your hands up in the air," ordered Harry urgently, and he was less than a metre away from a sickening crunch, when he was suddenly whisked up into the air like a balloon. Hermione was once again at the window of the potions classroom, this time from outside, and she passed it while floating upwards, she said "Defigio,", and the window silently slid shut. Harry was awed at this experience of flying, and it was actually quite similar to the 'Wingardiam Leviosa' charm that Ron had cast earlier on him when they were both trying to get up the girls dormitories. Harry laughed as he too passed the potion's window from outside, and saw Snape's back to him, shouting at Peeves for disturbing him for no fallible reason.
Up they floated, with their hands in the air, and all three of them had worked out how to control their speed of ascent and direction; it was all determined by the position of their hands, which had been sprinkled with the anti-gravity potion. Hermione was flying closest to the castle walls, with Ron and Harry next to her, looking down in awe at the bird's eye view of the grounds of Hogwarts.
"Look, let's go there," said Hermione, pointing to a small bridge at the tallest tower of Hogwarts. Harry thought this was a very good idea, as this was one of the highest points in Hogwarts and if they went any higher, they would be floating amongst the clouds until the potion wore off. Hermione and Harry steered themselves towards the bridge and landed on top of the hard surface. Hermione took out her wand, pointed it at her hands and muttered 'Dittanious.'
"This removes the flying charm within the potion, it mimics the effect of Dittany, an important potions restorative."
But Harry was looking urgently up at Ron, for he seemed to have missed the bridge and was floating several metres higher than them, with a pale and frightened expression.
"Ron, put your hands down" shouted Hermione, but Ron was frozen in fright in midair, looking very strange with his arms raised above his head.
"Wingardiam Leviosa" shouted Hermione, and she dragged her wand decisively down towards the ground. Ron at once started to come down, and within moments his feet were solidly upon the bridge.
"Oh Ron, I was so worried," said Hermione, but Ron had already recovered from the shock and a slightly goofy grin was plastered on his face.
"Sorry," he muttered, but soon the three were laughing unconcernedly as they walked down the bridge and into the castle again.
"Where are we?" asked Harry, as they stepped into a corridor that had numerous paintings of the sky, birds in flight. A large staircase wound downwards, and up ahead was a single blue door.
"Does this remind you of any particular house?" asked Ron, who was smiling with excitement.
"Wow," breathed Harry.
"The entrance to the Ravenclaw common room," said Hermione excitedly. "We're in Ravenclaw tower. These paintings are so wonderful".
They were indeed, thought Harry. He almost felt like he could drop into one of them and fly like an eagle, although, he thought wryly, he had had quite enough flying for the night.
Harry, Ron and Hermione approached the door at the end of the corridor. There was no handle, but instead a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.
"Blimey, there's no Fat lady," said Ron.
Harry pushed at the door, but it didn't open. Instead, the mouth of the bronze eagle opened, and a dignified and wise voice spoke out:
"If that brain of yours, is in full bloom,
answer correctly to enter the common room."
"A challenge" said Hermione excitedly. Harry personally thought that having an answer to a question as a password was foolish, for surely Ravenclaw's weren't the only ones in the school able to answer questions correctly.
"Blimey, we have to answer a question" exclaimed Ron. "Go on then, what is it?" he asked the eagle.
The eagle spoke again.
"Two in a corner,
one in a room.
None in a ship,
yet the pirates all say it."
Comprehension dawned on Harry's face. What made this room secure was the fact that Ravenclaw's were selected partially because of their wit and ability to answer such strange questions. He couldn't for the life of him think of the answer, and so the password proved to be quite secure after all.
"I don't even know what it means," said Ron, looking bemusedly at the three.
"There are two walls in a corner," offered Harry, trying to help.
"No, that doesn't make sense," said Hermione, who was thinking hard. "It doesn't fit in with the rest of the riddle."
"This reminds me of a pirate joke Fred once told me," said Ron, grinning slightly. "Why are pirates called pirates?"
Harry had heard this one before, and he and Ron laughed as Harry replied, "Because they ARRR." Hermione, however, suddenly jumped up in the air.
"That's it, Harry," she said, looking excited. "Umm, Mr Eagle" she said hesitantly, as Ron and Harry looked up at her, wondering what the answer was. "Umm, is the answer, the letter 'R'. Because there are two 'r's' in a corner, one in the word 'room', and pirates say 'arrrr'?"
The bronze eagle opened its mouth.
"Correctly answered, students noble.
Fare thee, on your journey, well."
Hermione pushed the door open slowly, and the three walked into the Ravenclaw common room. Harry gaped in astonishment, while he heard Ron say "Blimey."
Like the Gryffindor common room, this common room was also very tall with high ceilings. Unlike the Gryffindor common room, however, the Ravenclaw's had made the most of their available space. Harry looked up and saw a quadruple-storey complex, with moving spiralling staircases on both sides of the room. The ground floor, where Harry was standing, had comfortable cushions and roaring fires, and was quite similar to the Gryffindor common room. Harry walked up to the spiralling staircase on the right side of the room, and alongside Hermione and Ron, he stood on it while it took him up.
"These are like elevators," exclaimed Hermione, and Ron looked at her, perplexed.
Stopping on the second floor, Harry gaped once again in shock. Ron let out an excited whisper. This resembled, in all aspects, a Muggle arcade but with games that Harry had never before seen in his life. In the middle of this floor was a race track, not quite realistically sized but about five times the size of an actual road. There stood cars as well, which were as big as a cricket bat; just under one metre wide.
"Over here" gestured Ron to Harry frantically and he walked over to a glowing blue platform next to the cars. Harry and Ron ran over to the platform and they stood on a dotted line which had faint footprints on it, indicating them to stand on it. All at once, there was a shrinking sensation and suddenly Harry and Ron were a triple their size.
"Don't worry," said Ron to Harry. "I've heard of Wizarding rides that do this, it's to make everything fit. We'll just have to stand on the green platform (he indicated to another one further away) and then we'll turn back to normal."
In no time at all, Harry and Ron were engaged in a racing tournament, each one driving very quickly around the racetrack, with no thought for the fact that they were making quite a lot of noise in a place they weren't even meant to be. Once, when Harry lost control and turned his car upside down, a Hauling Charm lifted him back on to the track in the correct orientation.
Hermione, however, had decided to go up to the next floor, and was amazed to find a large, empty hall with little segments dedicated to certain activities. There was a basket ball ring, and you had to get the all of the balls in to the ring from 20 metres away using a flying charm. There was an array of hoops, and Hermione enjoyed spinning them simultaneously and waving them about the ceiling where they drifted slowly down again. But Hermione's favourite activity was the 'Defensive practice' segment. This was like a boxing ring, and Hermione had to stand in the centre. There were four small cannons on each edge, and they shot harmless objects such as rubber ducks and jets of water. Hermione used her creativity to defend herself. She put an 'engorigo' charm on the the rubber duck, and the jets of water were absorbed in the duck. She used a fine wire net to trap a sudden burst of wooden pellets and twisted her way around some flying leaves that came spinning at her; which she redirected using a strong draught of wind from her wand.
Suddenly, through the common room, a large gong sounded three times. Hermione gasped, suddenly remembering that they were in the Ravenclaw common room, thinking that they had been discovered. However, she looked at her watch and saw that it was, in fact, 3 am. Deciding to leave at once, Hermione quickly moved towards the left-hand side spiralling staircase and let it take her down. Once on the second floor, it appeared that Ron and Harry had had the same idea too, for they were too had exited from the cars and had moved over to the green platform where suddenly, they became their normal size. Looking excited, Harry and Ron moved over to Hermione.
"Isn't it brilliant, what the Ravenclaw's have done to their common room?" said Hermione.
"I going to persuade Fred and George to sneak into this room as well, then they can convince everyone to make Gryffindor tower even better," said Ron, who also sounded very impressed and excited.
Harry was just about to speak when suddenly a gaggle of voices came from upstairs.
"-I'm going to enchant my car this time so it can hover in the air," drifted a voice.
"It's coming from the fourth floor," said Hermione. "It must be some Ravenclaw's who are going to use this racetrack."
"Quick, get under the cloak," said Harry and the three students hurriedly put it on. They moved onto the left spiralling staircase and just as it was going down, they saw a group of first and second year Ravenclaw's heading over to the blue platform next to the cars.
The revolving staircase deposited them in front of the door and the three students walked out.
Ron yawned loudly, and Harry realised how tired he was too.
"It's been a very late night," said Hermione. "We had better make our way toward the common room."
"Any idea where to go?" asked Harry.
"No, but we'll have to go carefully under the cloak. Don't want to alert Peeves again," said Ron. The three students headed down the winding stairs in Ravenclaw tower, a lengthy journey that took several minutes.
"I think that the best thing to do would be to get out into the grounds, and walk around the school until we get a sense of direction. These staircases will end up taking us to McGonagall's office if we're not careful," said Ron.
"I'm not going outside," said Hermione. "It's too dangerous."
"There's no need to," said Harry, smiling. "There's the Great Hall." And indeed, he was right. Several paces to the left was the Great Hall; the three had somehow wandered right in front of it.
"Oh well," said Ron. "Perhaps we can tour the grounds on another adventure."
The three passed the house hourglasses which held the rubies – Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were neck to neck – and beat a familiar path to their common room entrance.
The Fat Lady was dozing.
"Excuse me," said Hermione to the portrait. The Fat Lady arose with a start, and looked around wildly.
"Show yourself, I say," she said very loudly.
"It's only us," said Harry, whisking off the invisibility cloak that Hermione had forgotten they were wearing.
"What are you doing out at this time? I didn't see you leave."
"Just open up, Magizoology," said Ron, stating the password.
"Honestly, call this an entrance time. I'll be telling Sir Nicholas de Pimpsy Porpington to have a word with you," she complained.
"Magizoology," said Harry firmly, and the portrait swung open, revealing their warm and cozy common room, though admittedly the fire had burnt down to a few remaining embers.
"Well, that was quite enjoyable," said Harry, looking at the others. Hermione's eyes were drooping slightly and Ron was once again yawning.
"Yes, it was fun," replied Hermione, who was already heading to her dormitories. "Goodnight," she called over her shoulder.
"Goodnight," replied Ron and Harry, who were heading into their dormitories. "Well, put an alarm on that clock your mum gave, Ron, otherwise I don't expect I'll be able to wake up for our lessons tomorrow," said Harry. There was no reply.
"Ron?" he said, but Ron was already lying on his bed, snoring, with Scabbers curled up in his front pocket.
Harry too dropped onto his four poster bed, and within moments, was fast asleep.